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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Gastroenterology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1508439
This article is part of the Research Topic Gastrointestinal Tract Infections: A Global Perspective View all 19 articles

Assessing the Impact of 25-Hydroxyvitamin Concentrations on Mortality in Chronic Diarrhea: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Pengyu Li Pengyu Li 1Menglong Zou Menglong Zou 2Ziming Peng Ziming Peng 3*
  • 1 Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Anhui Province, China
  • 2 The First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Hunan, China
  • 3 Fangchengang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangxi, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin levels and all-cause mortality in patients with chronic diarrhea.We carried out a cross-sectional study using information drawn from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). To assess mortality outcomes, we compared our data with records from the National Death Index as of December 31, 2011.The NHANES data were used to determine mortality outcome. We used a Cox regression model-based approach to analyze the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin concentrations and mortality in chronic diarrhea patients.Results: A total of 2972 participants with chronic diarrhoea were included in our study, 488 cases of all-cause mortality were recorded. The study showed an L-shaped relationship between 25hydroxyvitamin concentrations and all-cause mortality with a threshold of 73.40 nmol/L. On the left side of the threshold, each 1-unit increase in 25-hydroxyvitamin concentrations was associated with a 2.2% reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality (HR 0.978; 95% CI: 0.969, 0.987); however, on the right side of the threshold, there was no significant correlation between 25(OH)D concentrations and all-cause mortality.Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels showed an L-shaped association with all-cause mortality in patients with chronic diarrhea, with 73.40 nmol/L as the potential threshold. However, because this was a cross-sectional study, only an association, not a causal relationship, can be inferred.Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings and explore the potential impact of vitamin D supplementation on mortality outcomes.

    Keywords: Chronic diarrhea, Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, All-cause mortality, NHANES, Lshaped association

    Received: 09 Oct 2024; Accepted: 20 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zou and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ziming Peng, Fangchengang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangxi, China

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